Talk:All about : Queen Elsa/@comment-74.99.65.62-20170417023101/@comment-74.99.65.62-20170615181138
Sansa Stark* Princess Sansa Stark Little Bird, Jonquil, Lady Alayne Stone ::"My skin has gone from porcelain, to ivory, to steel." Eddard's oldest daughter. She is an optimistic and innocent eleven-year-old girl during the beginning of the series, originally set to become the next queen. Her main flaw is that she is very naïve, often thinking that the harsh world around her works like it does in romantic fairytales. Ouch. Needless to say, certain events change that. She seems to be becoming more savvy, cynical and manipulative, with the help of Littlefinger. Her direwolf is Lady, the smallest and sweetest of the litter.---- *All Girls Want Bad Boys: Few of the men Sansa gets hot and bothered over are as nice or cool as she thinks they are. She is first mentioned having a crush on Ser Waymar Royce. Absolutely adores Joffrey and makes excuses for everything he does before he orders her father's death. She later develops a more genuine and personal attraction toward Joffrey's mercurial bodyguard, The Hound, the complete opposite of her dream man. Even Loras Tyrell, the one man she likes who most resembles her Knight in Shining Armor fantasy, is an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy who's clearly not into her. *All Love Is Unrequited: One of the aspects that brings her the most pain after she's sent crashing down from her idealist views is that she came to realize that no one has shown her even the slightest bit of romantic love. All affection and interest shown towards her has had an ulterior motive completely linked to her being a political pawn.Sansa: No one will ever marry me for love. *Almost Kiss: Played with. Dubbed "The Unkiss" by fans, Sansa remembers The Hound having kissed her before he left King's Landing. He later confirms to Arya that no such thing happened. *Alpha Bitch: At the start of the series, Sansa is the leader of the group of young Winterfell girls, Jeyne Poole and Beth Cassel, all of whom at best are aloof to and, at worst, bully the outsider Arya. Of the three, it is known that Sansa and Jeyne call Arya "Horseface" and demean her over her physical appearance and lack of ability when it comes to fitting into social norms. **Lovable Alpha Bitch: However, she does genuinely love her friends from Winterfell and family. From her perspective, her treatment of Arya is something she has a right to do, particularly since their primary instructor, Septa Mordane, encourages and compliments Sansa's skills while discouraging Arya's behavior. *Animal Motifs: Besides the standard direwolf imagery, Sansa herself is often compared to a bird. **Sandor calls her "little bird" and demands a song from her. ***Initially, he calls her like that because she is taught to repeat her handlers' words, like a bird from the Summer Islands; mockingly, that would be a parrot. Later, the meaning changes to something less mocking. **She's also in the company of Littlefinger, whose personal sigil is a mockingbird. **As of right now, she resides in the Vale of Arryn. The sigil of House Arryn is a falcon. *Arranged Marriage: Her high social standing leads to a number of offers, none of which end up very well. **Robert proposes a marriage between her and his eldest son Joffrey, thinking there could be nothing better than joining his best friend's family with his own. It doesn't happen. **During A Storm of Swords, the Tyrells try to marry her to Willas, Mace Tyrell's son and heir to Highgarden, for her claim to Winterfell once all of her trueborn brothers are out of the way. Sansa feels relieved by this (despite the fact that Willas is a cripple), since it will allow her to get away from the Lannisters' grasp, but... **Tywin Lannister catches wind of the Tyrell's plan and marries Sansa to his dwarf son Tyrion, who ends up treating her better than the rest of the family. **In A Feast for Crows, Petyr tells Sansa that as soon as Cersei finds and kills Tyrion, thus freeing her from her marriage to him, she shall be wed to the heir to the Vale. Once this happens, he plans to have Sansa shed her Alayne Stone disguise and reclaim Winterfell in the Stark name, thus becoming the Lady of both the North and the East. *Attempted Rape: Four times. This poor girl just can't seem to catch a break. **An angry mob at King's Landing attacks Joffrey and nearly drags Sansa from the horse. Sandor cuts them down and rescues her. Another noble woman was gang raped during this riot, so this could have been Sansa's fate had she not been rescued. **She fears the Hound might try to force a kiss on her when he appears in her room the night of the siege and forces her onto her bed with a knife to her throat. The reader finds out later that he was close to raping her, but her song changed his heart. **Joffrey threatens to do this to her during her wedding to Tyrion. **The drunk singer Marillion proposes to sleep with her when he sees her for the first time. She spurns him, but that doesn't quite stop him. When Lothor Brune shakes Marillion off her, she thinks he was Sandor for a moment. *Awful Wedded Life: She doesn't enjoy being married to Tyrion one bit. Since she has no idea that he's A Lighter Shade of Grey, she lives in constant fear of him using his Marital Rape License (though, to be fair, he did grope her on their wedding night, so that fear is very understandable). He doesn't treat her badly, but he's still a Lannister and the bad blood between their Houses isn't something that's easily set aside. *Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite Sansa seeing Arya as the Annoying Younger Sibling for most of Game of Thrones and continuing to think poorly of her in later books, even when she thinks Arya is dead, she imagines having a daughter who looks like her, along with sons who resemble her brothers. And, though she wasn't particularly close with her half-brother, Jon Snow, they miss each other when their family is separated and think of one another throughout the series — in A Feast for Crows, Sansa thinks of how wonderful it would be to see him again. *Bastard Understudy: After the abuse at the hands of the Lannisters, Littlefinger is educating her in the game of thrones and the lies therein. *Beast and Beauty: A motif most prominently seen with the hideous-looking Sandor Clegane, who is as predatory as he is protective with her. Averted with Tyrion Lannister; though recognizing Tyrion's attempts at kindness, she cannot bring herself to feel for him as she does Sandor. *Became Their Own Antithesis: She has to abandon most of the stuff about living honestly and honorably taught to her as a Stark, if she is to survive. *Becoming the Mask: Following Lysa's death, she has come to think of herself as Alayne Stone, to the point of the chapter headers changing. According to George R. R. Martin, Sansa might be gone completely. *Beware the Quiet Ones: When Joffrey shows her the heads of her father and household on spikes, Sansa actually moves to push him off the bridge they're on. She's stopped by Sandor Clegane. *Big Brother Worship: To Robb, somewhat. She doesn't precisely play the trope straight, but she does have shades of it internally (as she has to publicly declare him a traitor in order to keep her head.) Justified as Robb's forces are her best hope of getting out of King's Landing.Robb will kill them all, she thought, exulting. **She begins to have shades of this with Jon, who she starts to identify with by taking example from him about how should behave an highborn bastard child when she assumes the identity of Petyr Baelish' bastard daughter. Additionally, she longs to see Jon again. *Big Brother Bully: Her side of The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry with Arya (who responds with acting the mouthy Annoying Younger Sibling part). Sansa can act snotty at times and use her Girl Posse to convey to Arya that she doesn't consider her proper sister material. Sansa and Jeyne also call her names and tease Arya about her looks, among other things."Hodor!” Sansa yelled. “You ought to marry Hodor, you’re just like him, stupid and hairy and ugly!” *Bodyguard Crush: Evidenced by her false memory of being kissed by Sandor "the Hound" Clegane. *Bond Creatures: She and Lady never really did get a chance to explore their warg nature that much — but, judging from how distraught she was upon her direwolf's death, it was still very much a part of their combined make-up. Whether she can still explore the possible skinchanging side of herself is unknown at this point. It's not like she's had much chance to be around wolves, dogs or even other creatures, since. She does meet an old blind dog in A Storm of Swords though and quickly befriends him. *Book Dumb: She isn't good with math, but otherwise, averted as she is skilled at reading, writing, and the arts. *Break the Cutie: Sansa has the wrong idea about the world she lives in. Cersei Lannister and her deranged son make sure to teach her that the world is a cruel place by subjecting her to constant abuse and imprisonment.Sansa's thoughts: There are no heroes... In life, the monsters win. *Break the Haughty: She starts out thinking handsome guys are always the best, but after the Starks fall out of grace, the only people who defend her from Joffrey are the horribly scarred Sandor Clegane (who admittedly is still a bastard in the nonliteral sense) the kind but deformed Tyrion Lannister, and the fat, disgraced hedge knight-turned-jester Dontos. *Broken Pedestal **Her image of living in a medieval fantasy world crumbles when she meets people who seem to exemplify different stereotypes of that world. Her Prince Charming Joffrey is a sadist, Drunk with Power. The High Queen Cersei is manipulative and cruel. The knights who she thought are champions of justice and protectors of the weak turn out to be, at worst, Axe-Crazy thugs, or at best, morally detached men who use duty as an excuse from taking actual responsibility for the bad things they were ordered to do. **Her view of the Tyrells, the family she thought might save her from the Lannisters. She realizes that Loras's chivalry is all for show and that she doesn't mean anything to him. After Sansa is married off to Tyrion, and thus no longer a useful pawn, Margaery dumps her without a backward glance. Littlefinger reveals that Olenna set her up to take the blame for Joffrey's murder. **Sansa even becomes disillusioned by her family as The Hound tells her the atrocities being done to them was probably done by them to others so the Starks can remain supreme. *Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the The Ingenue: Not only does she subvert the Disneyfiedexpectations of her character, but she doesn't die off like most characters like her do in Crapsack Worlds. Instead, Sansa survives through her emotional strength, and gradually learns how to manipulate and scheme to her own ends. *Damsel in Distress: Being constantly among enemies while she's a non-combatant, Sansa requires rescuing more than once. *Domestic Abuse: Poor girl is on the receiving end of this from Joffrey and his knights as petty revenge for Robb's victories. Part of her Trauma Conga Line. *Dye or Die: Sansa must dye her distinctive auburn locks to a generic brown to mask her identity. *Everybody Hates Mathematics: While Sansa does well in all her other lessons, she's terrible at math. *Fallen Princess: She begins the series having everything a person in Westeros could ask for, but it all begins crumbling beneath her when the game of thrones begins. *Foil: **According to Word of God, Sansa was initially created as foil to her sister Arya. She's a deconstruction of the Princess Classic and Arya is a deconstruction of the Tomboy Princess, but their trials have many similarities. Each have their idealist world views shattered, cope with various forms of abuse, are forced to flee and change their identities, and have to rely on individuals who are... less than trustworthy. **Lysa Tully. Both Lysa and Sansa fell in love with the wrong kind of man except Lysa never learns and becomes Littlefinger's willing pawn going so far as killing her husband Jon for his sake. **Cersei Lannister. She and Sansa both dreamed of becoming queen, but quickly became disenchanted with the social expectations that came with this. **Littlefinger. Both he and Sansa were Wide Eyed Idealists as children and had sweet, gentle natures before going through a horrendous Break the Cutie and Trauma Conga Line process, resulting in both becoming cynical and emotionally guarded. **The Hound. When he was younger, he had an idealistic and naïve outlook, wanting to be a great knight like Sansa wanted to be a Lady, but was quickly robbed of it by his brother. He sees these same qualities in Sansa and attempts to both enlighten and protect her, ironically functioning as the Knight in Shining Armor(albeit an offbeat one) that he claims doesn't exist. **Curiously, to Tyrion. Though they are on opposite physionomic spectra when it comes to beauty, gender and size, they are intertwined in their stories. They come to the bitter realization that no one will ever marry them for love. They are both rather intelligent, if naive and they have to contend against the same people in King's Landing. They end up married to each other against their will and they are currently on flight, as they are both accused of conspiring to kill Joffrey. **To Daenerys Targaryen. Sansa is what would have happened to Daenerys if Daenrys didn't have the mechanisms to fight back and if she weren't surrounded by prophecy. It's fair to point out that Dany greatly relied in the charity of others to survive up to the events of AGOT and these same people might be pushing these gifts for her to fulfill said prophecy. While Sansa is largely a political pawn, Dany has several people on her back trying to make her an ideological pawn. Both see themselves as dissatisfied with their aspirations once they fulfill them: Sansa has dreamt of a courtly, glamorous life; Dany was told all her life she is a natural-born leader who is meant to rule — but once they come to realize these aspirations, they both find out that the reality of their aspirations is far more crushing, dangerous and difficult than either of them could know. Both are very attractive but have found little advantage to it. Both have been separated from their families. Sansa has four brothers (Robb, Jon, Rickon and Bran) who love her while Daenerys' own brother (Viserys) uses her as a pawn and treats her poorly. In more recent events, they both are trying to shed their personae and become more pragmatic... only that Dany has dragons and hasn't used them. *Forced to Watch: She's made to watch as her father's execution after being told that he would be shown mercy. Later Joffrey takes her out of her rooms and makes her stare at her father's head as it rots on a spike. *Gilded Cage: Her position as Joffrey's future queen. She's in a beautiful castle surrounded by servants, material comforts, and guards...as a glorified hostage, betrothed to a sadistic monster who killed her father while her family is being destroyed. Oh, and the noble guards dressed in gleaming white there to protect the whole family (which technically includes her)... beat her on her royaler fiancé's orders. *Graceful in Their Element: The very reason why Sansa survives her ordeal at King's Landing is because she is a consummate courtesan and a paragon of ladyship. A number of characters note how well Sansa handles the horrors she has to go through without losing an ounce of grace. *Has a Type: She wants herself a Princely Young Man very, very badly. The candidates turn out to be Jerk Jock-ish at best (with Loras' Incompatible Orientation to boot) and Joffrey at worst. Including the wannabe-rapist Marillion, any hot guy that has a business with her will be a certified Jerk Ass. *The Heart: She's not usually able to be in this position, but during the Blackwater when Cersei abandons the women and children stuck in the castle, Sansa calms them down and makes the whole room less afraid. *Hello, Nurse!: She starts the story as an eleven year-old girl, but quickly starts growing up; everyone starts to praise her beauty and virtually every male character who can get away with it attempts to molest her (with the only exception being the who one actually has the "right" to do it, Tyrion Lannister). And the exception is an exception only because of scruples and not lack for interest. Meanwhile Sansa herself is fantasizing about Sandor Clegane, who she has romanticized by misremembering their not so great interactions. Such as that time he forced her onto her bed with a blade at her throat. *Heroic B.S.O.D.: **Her father's death brings about one. She spends days locked in her chamber, not eating, only sleeping and crying. At one point she even contemplates jumping out the window to her death, but doesn't have the nerve to go through with it. **She freaks out when she starts menstruating, to the point where she tries to burn her mattress to hide it. What she's really afraid of is that Joffrey will try raping her as soon as he finds out. **The poor girl spends her time after hearing about the Red Wedding in a catatonic state. *Horrible Judge of Character: She begins as one, thinking everyone who is highborn and pretty to be good. She's even determined to see Joffrey as Prince Charming and Cersei as The High Queen. As soon as she sees their true colours, her worldview changes and she stops being this, being able to judge people somewhat more accurately. Still, since she feels she can't pick up on who her allies are, she just starts to seclude herself from the world whenever feasible, assuming everyone wants to hurt her. **Interestingly she is one among a handful of characters to realize that there's something rather... off about Littlefinger. **Her chapters on the books show her as a very perceptive and meticulous young lady, though she is still a diamond in raw. *Hyper Awareness: As indicated by her narration, she is incredibly observant and prone to picking up the smallest details, but just doesn't know how to use this correctly until Littlefinger begins teaching her. She is also one of few characters able to provide an intimate glimpse into Littlefinger's psyche. *In Another Man's Shoes: After assuming the identity of Alayne Stone, Littlefinger's bastard daughter. Although she is still quite privileged by bastard standards as she is allowed to order servants about, she still desponds over not being able to wear the clothes and jewels she wishes to since that would threaten her cover. Of course, it's a much better life than where she was in Kings Landing and she realizes that. *I Have Your Wife: Used as leverage against Ned in an effort to get him to submit to the Lannisters' bidding. Later, she is used as a hostage in King's Landing to try and make the North bend the knee. *I Just Want to Be Loved: One of her main gripes with her being cast down from her Wide-Eyed Idealist situation is that no one has made the slightest effort to approach her with romantic intentions. In AFFC she is already resigned with the fact that no one will marry her out of love. *The Ingenue: Deconstructed. Her naivety and innocence only serve to make her life hell. *Innocence Lost: Goes from sweet Princess Classic to Broken Bird over a couple of years. The constant abuse, lies and rape attempts she had to endure don't leave much room for her initial innocent personality. The last bit of innocence crumbles away when her own aunt tries to kill her in a crazy fit because she thinks Sansa is attempting to seduce Petyr. *Innocent Blue Eyes: Inherited her mother's blue eyes, and naively believes the world works like a fairytale. Needless to say, she subverts this trope by also being an example of Innocence Lost. *Intergenerational Friendship: With Lothor Brune, who once saves her from a wannabe-rapist. Later he is quick to call a nobleman who's insulted her 'the Arse', and she hugs him. *Jade-Colored Glasses: As the series advances, Sansa comes to view the world in a cynical light, leading her to trust almost no one. *Like Father, Like Son: She may look like her mother, but like Ned, Sansa is extremely idealistic and trusting. Her and her father's tendency to get swayed by their trust in the idealistic way they believe the world works bites them in the ass in A Game of Thrones and led to their imprisonment. *Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: She tends to fall for the exactly wrong types of men, who cannot or won't reciprocate her feelings: **Waymar Royce, who is on the road to become a Celibate Hero by joining the Night's Watch; **Joffrey Baratheon, The Caligula; **Loras Tyrell, who is in a Transparent Closet; **Renly Baratheon, who is keeping the pretense; **Sandor Clegane who is a cross between a Tsundere, a Knight in Sour Armor and a Jerkass Woobie, all plus the fact that he looks terrifying. *Loose Lips: Unintentionally helped the queen's plot against Eddard, which cost him his life, and also prevented the Tyrells' plan to help her and whisk her away to Highgarden by confiding in Ser Dontos, who was really a False Friend employed by Littlefinger. *Loss of Identity: According to Word of God, Sansa is losing her identity and becoming Alayne Stone.George R. R. Martin: Sansa may be dead as well. There's only Alayne Stone. **The excerpt from Winds Of Winter, however, suggests that she considers Sansa and Alayne two different people and sometimes habitually thinks as Sansa. *Lovable Alpha Bitch: Her initial characterization has shades of this. Haughty and patronizing, she bullies her little sister, Arya, by calling her names, telling her she should have died, and belittling her appearance. But despite this, Sansa is still overwhelmingly innocent and can be sweet, as well. *Machiavelli Was Wrong: When Cersei tells her that the best way to ensure loyalty is through fear, Sansa silently disagrees because she had always been taught that love was the surest way to gain loyalty.Sansa's narration: If I am ever queen, I will make smallfolk love me. *Make a Wish: Back in A Game of Thrones, Sansa wishes that some hero would throw Janos Slynt down and cut off his ugly head. Guess what Jon does in A Dance with Dragons, when Slynt disobeyed Jon's orders. *Manipulative Bitch: She has started to learn how to play with lies and manipulation through Littlefinger's very weird but obviously intelligent tutelage. *Meaningful Rename: If you [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Portmanteau combine the names for Alayne and Stone] you get the word alone. Probably a coincidence, but with a different pronunciation, Alayne sounds a lot like allein(e), the German word for alone. *Misblamed: She is framed as a willing conspirator in the death of King Joffrey; turns out she was turned into a scapegoat by Olenna Redwyne. *Misplaced Retribution: Sansa suffers for this repeatedly. In 'A Clash of Kings', Joffrey has her beaten for Robb's successes in the war. Later in 'A Storm of Swords', when Littlefinger forces a kiss on Sansa, Lysa blames her for pursuing him and attempts to murder her. *Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Played with. According to most of the Lannisters and the court, this was the reason Sansa conspired to kill Joffrey. As it turns out, they're wrong, as Sansa had nothing to do with it and was framed by Olenna Redwyne to take the fall. *Morality Pet: Sansa is one of the few people Sandor Clegane seems to show a softer side to. Though he scares her, he also acts protective towards her and even regrets letting Joffrey rough her up for his twisted amusement. *Naïve Newcomer: King's Landing court is not the illustrious castle with knights in shining armor she thought it would be. *Named After Someone Famous: She shares her name after an ancestor. *Near-Rape Experience: During the Battle of the Blackwater, a very drunk Sandor Clegane comes into her room, forces her onto her bed, and holds a knife to her throat. He later admits he would have raped her, but he left after demanding a song from her. Ends with them both in tears. She is later almost raped by a bard in her aunt's employ. *Not So Above It All: **While Cersei chastises her for "being perfect", Sansa is very much hurt by the mistreatment she is subjected to. In fact, Cersei's annoyance stems from the fact that Sansa is seemingly taking everything so gracefully and she lowers her guard with the girl. According to Cersei and the Lannisters, this is what led Sansa to "kill Joffrey". **As noted in Beware the Quiet Ones, she almost pushed Joffrey from a height but was stopped by Sandor Clegane. *Not So Different: Her and Jon. Although they seem to be like South and North at the beginning, it's actually apparent that they have more in common than it seems. Both Jon and Sansa share many character traits with Ned, like their naive idealistic views on the world (which were both crushed when they left Winterfell) and their observant nature. **At the beginning of the series, both Sansa and Jon are the Wide-Eyed Idealist. Because of their shared sheltered upbringing by protective parent(s), Jon and Sansa both have idealized notions of their respective aspirations — Jon's dream of becoming a member of the Night's Watch and Sansa's dream of going to the royal court and being betrothed to a prince. Both learn the reality of things rather quickly when they get to fulfill said aspirations. **Sansa and Arya as well. Both start off as two somewhat spoiled girls with naive ideas about knights and how the world works. Both become much more jaded as the series progresses when they are placed in the real world. *Our Werewolves Are Different: According to Word of God, all the Stark children are wargs, though we haven't seen anything from Sansa yet, possibly because her direwolf, Lady, is one of the series' first casualties, and because she has little to no contact with animals after this. *Parental Substitute: Her cousin Robert Arryn sees her as a mother figure, with Sansa being the only one besides his mother he responds positively to. *Passive-Aggressive Kombat: What moves of her own she does make usually fall into this category in a subtle form of the trope. She isn't in a position to actively fight against her enemies and abusers, so she is forced to use what seemingly benign weapons she does have (politeness, courtesy, and manners) to protect herself from abuse. She started sharpening these skills on Joffrey out of necessity, and continues to improve. *The Pawn: She has been used to advance the plots of all of the people she has met by virtue of who she is and the social position she has, garnering no benefit for herself whatsoever. In King's Landing, she is even slowly losing social standing until she is cast aside as a harmless yes-girl. She does start to realize this, but she also laments the fact that no one has shown her sincere romantic affection in any way and no one has made the most minimal effort to make her happy, so she resorts to start imagining that The Hound kissed her. *Pinball Protagonist: Sansa spends a lot of time early on being pushed around by other characters, and she stands out as being reactive and passive while the other POVs are more proactive. Justified, though, in that she's a very sheltered preteen noble girl (so this trope is expected of her) unable to escape King's Landing like Arya. It doesn't help that most of her time in the capital is spent being physically and emotionally abused by her future in-laws. *Plucky Girl: She's growing into this, though not before becoming broken first. *Politeness Judo: One of her early lessons that come in handy even when held captive and surrounded by enemies is "courtesy is a lady's armor." She uses politeness and courteous phrases to protect herself from others. *Promotion to Parent: She takes care of Sweetrobin after Littlefinger sends Lysa flying through Moon Door. *Proper Lady: Just like her mother. *Puppet King: What the Lannisters and Tyrells mean for Sansa should they get their hands on Winterfell through her. Littlefinger now seems to be planning to make her a puppet queen, as he plans to use Sansa to unite the North, Vale, and Trident and possibly use their combined might to defeat the rest of Westeros. *Put on a Bus: She does not appear in the fifth book, but will return in the sixth. *The Resenter: Downplayed; in the first book her dialogue implies she's resentful of how indulged and adored Arya is, getting away with breaking their parents' rules, despite being horrible at traditionally ladylike things she is. In comparison, Sansa is much more celebrated in her docility, while Arya's hot-headedness is merely tolerated. *Replacement Goldfish: **Littlefinger seems to have transferred his unrequited affections from Catelyn to Sansa, who strongly resembles her mother. **She herself is replaced by Margaery Tyrell as betrothed to Joffrey, as she loses political value for the Lannisters once the Starks are out of the way. *Right Handed Mirror: A trait that reinforces just how her sister Arya is her polar opposite. *Sarcasm-Blind: She actually isn't, but often has to outwardly pretend she is. Or, at the very least, be very convincingly unbothered. It drove both Cersei and Joffrey up the wall whenever it successfully blocked their snark in public. *Shameful Strip: Joffrey orders her to be stripped and beaten as petty revenge for Robb's victories. *Sheltered Aristocrat: Like her sister and four brothers, Sansa has very little experience with the world outside of Winterfell until she leaves Winterfell and what she has learned of the world, she has learned from songs. *Sibling Yin-Yang: **Arya's polar opposite in terms of looks and personality. **With her half-brother Jon, regarding looks, as well as social and cultural status at the beginning. At first, it seems like they are the complete opposite with Jon being the most "northern-cultured" Stark child and also the one who resembles Ned the most, while Sansa is the most "southern-cultured" Stark child who also resembles Catelyn the most. It's notable that they switch roles later on with Sansa assuming the identity of a bastard child and Jon being forced to become a Lord and take leadership. He was also legitimized by Robb, while Sansa was disinherited. Turns out, they are Not So Different actually. *Silk Hiding Steel: Grows into this. *So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Poor Sansa's looks tend to get her the wrong kind of attention from men, which in turn may also result in murderous rage from jealous women. Interestingly, it's averted in her relationship with Cersei, who seems to appreciate Sansa's beauty and never goes paranoid over the possibility of Sansa being "the younger, more beautiful queen" who would threaten her. *The Social Expert: Sansa has nearly perfect manners, makes everyone feel at ease around her, and prides herself on always knowing what to say. Even Tyrion notes how well she does with people; this is one of the main reasons she is able to survive her ordeal with the Lannisters:She is good at this, he thought, as he watched her tell Lord Gyles that his cough was sounding better, compliment Elinor Tyrell on her gown, and question Jalabhar Xho about wedding customs in the Summer Isles. ... Without his father beside him holding him up, he note would surely have collapsed. Yet when Sansa praised his valor and said how good it was to see him getting strong again, both Lancel and Ser Kevan beamed. *Spoiled Brat: It's implied she was very sheltered growing up, and it shows. Though she is genuinely compassionate and gentle, her upbringing and immaturity at the start of the series can lead to her acting somewhat bratty and arrogant in the first book, especially towards Arya. *Stepford Smiler: To survive in Kings Landing after her father beheading, Sansa must smile politely and repeatedly assure everyone how much she loves Joffrey. *Stockholm Syndrome: Played with. She's aware that there is really something wrong with Littlefinger's intentions towards her, but once in the guise of Alayne Stone, his bastard daughter under his protection, she tries very hard to ignore this and develop positive feelings towards him. *Strong Family Resemblance: She's supposedly the spitting image of her mother at the same age. *Tantrum Throwing: She throws a tantrum when Ned informs her that he is sending her back to Winterfell and will end her betrothal without explaining why. *Team Mom: **After Cersei leaves the ballroom during the Battle of Blackwater, Sansa takes it upon herself to take care of the women and children left behind. She keeps them calm, leads them in song and prayer, and helps a wounded Lancel Lannister to a maester. **In AFFC, as she becomes the de facto Lady of the Eyrie after Lysa Arryn's death. She manages the household while Littlefinger is away and serves as Sweetrobin's primary caregiver. Subverted though, because this doesn't stop her from thinking about giving him a slap or two for getting on her nerves or slowly killing him by poisoning him with Sweetsleep. Maester Colemon warns her against making him give this to Robert. Per Littlefinger's instruction, she insists he give him unhealthy amounts anyway, thinking, "Maester Colemon cares only for the boy, though. Father and I have larger concerns." *The Tease: Shows some shades of this in her The Winds of Winter preview chapter, employing her charms on Harrold Hardyng. Played with, in that she's being forced to do this by Littlefinger. *Textile Work Is Feminine: Is much better at embroidery than her tomboy sister Arya. *Thicker Than Water: Played with. Tyrion points out to Joffrey that Sansa's father might have been a traitor, but she still deserves to be mourning just like he should be mourning King Robert's death. Sansa halfway rebukes him by repeating that Ned was a traitor just as a mechanism for her own survival. *Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Joffrey is her Prince Charming who adores her and will give her beautiful babies with golden hair. She eventually grows out of it. *Tomboy and Girly Girl: She plays the beautiful, princessy girly-girl part to Arya's tomboy. *Trademark Favorite Food: Sansa loves lemon cakes. She even uses lemon perfume once when given the option. *Tragic Keepsake: In A Storm of Swords she still keeps the blood-splattered white Kingsguard cloak, which Sandor Clegane left to her before leaving King's Landing. *Trauma Conga Line: King's Landing was not kind to her. *Unreliable Narrator: She repeatedly remembers situations differently than they played out. When Joffrey abused the butcher's boy, the reader first gets the story accurately from her perspective, but later in the novel, Sansa has changed that event from Joffrey attacking Mycah to Mycah attacking Joffrey. In one of her POV chapters in A Storm of Swords, Sansa remembers Sandor kissing her the night of the siege in King's Landing, though that never happened. She actually sang a song for him. *Unresolved Sexual Tension: She and Sandor have a strange connection which has yet to be resolved. *Unwanted Spouse: Sooner than later, Joffrey becomes her unwanted fiancé, even though she has to keep up the pretense of loving him in order to keep her head. Later, she and Tyrion become this to each other. *Unwitting Pawn: When Ned Stark is captured as a traitor, Sansa has to resort to the only authority figures she has available, meaning the Royal Court and the Queen, unbeknownst that poised her father as a traitor. *Upper-Class Twit: Pre-character development, a little. Her standard of "how good of a person someone is" is directly tied up in "how handsome/beautiful said person is" because of how she sees life like the songs and fairy tales. This begins to lessen during the course of the novels. *Virgin Tension: Much is made of the fact that Sansa's maidenhead is still intact. *Wide-Eyed Idealist: Due to her parents' overly sheltering her, she is too trusting at the beginning, believing Cersei wants what's best for her. Her Character Development has her grow out of this. *Wrong Genre Savvy: Had Sansa realized sooner that world wasn't like a fairytale, she would've gone through a bit less hardship. Then again, had she gone through less hardship, she wouldn't have realized that the world wasn't like a fairytale... *Yank the Dog's Chain: By book three, she's suffered through a Trauma Conga Line, but early in the book, Margaery and Olenna offer to marry her to Tyrell heir Willas — meaning she'd be able to get away from King's Landing and become Lady of Highgarden (one of the nicest places in Westeros), even if it is for her claim to Winterfell. It doesn't happen because when Tywin finds out, he forcibly marries her to his son Tyrion instead. *You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Robb believes that once the Lannisters get an heir to Winterfell out of her, they'll kill her. * Arya Stark* Princess Arya Stark Arya Horseface, Arya Underfoot, Arry, Lumpyface, Lumpyhead, Weasel, Nymeria, Nan, Squab, Salty, Cat of the Canals, Beth the Blind Girl, The Ugly Little Girl, Mercedene, Mercy "Fear cuts deeper than swords." Eddard's free-spirited, nine-year-old tomboy daughter who doesn't fit the expectations of a highborn girl at all. She identifies with her brother Jon, a fellow outsider, with who she is very close, and enjoys the company of those from lower classes, such as servants and their children. When the war breaks out, Arya plunges into the wide world as she is forced to go on the run and becomes embroiled in a surprising number of violent adventures despite her tender age. Her direwolf is Nymeria. *Action Survivor: Arya survives many dangerous and violent situation throughout her story despite not being physically strong or trained in arms. From the fourth book onward, she progressing toward being an assassin. *Always Someone Better: Arya was envious of Sansa's beauty and talents, which would get Sansa far in Westeros's patriarchal society. Although Arya has her own talents (such as math, knowledge of the outdoors, fighting, and horseback riding) that help her survive disguised as a commoner, they aren't skills that are valued or acknowledged in a highborn girl. *Animal Eye Spy: During [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/AStormOfSwords A Storm of Swords] Arya begins to warg into her lost direwolf, Nymeria, while she is asleep. When she is briefly blinded in Braavos she realizes she can see through the eyes of a cat. *Animal Motif: **The first book has her chasing cats. In Braavos, she takes up the name of Cat of the Canals because there are many cats in Braavos and an additional one wouldn't make a difference. She ends up skinchanging into one while being temporarily blind. **She's also described as a "she-wolf" due to her aggressive nature and the sigil of her house. She repeatedly refers to herself as a wolf in addition to warging into Nymeria. **While she's taken prisoner and sent to Harrenhal, she compares herself to a sheep (because of her enforced passiveness in the face of the torture, rape and murder she witnesses) and a mouse (because she's too small and unimportant to notice in the vast castle). When she decides to escape she goes back to using wolf imagery to encourage herself. *Annoying Younger Sibling: Her older brothers adore her, but Sansa, with whom she shares The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry, certainly sees her this way in the first book since Arya frequently gets away with not behaving like a noblewoman and can be a Jerkass when she's not pleased with Sansa. *Anti-Hero: She appears to be slowly getting darker as she takes levels in badass: she's a Pragmatic Hero in [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/AClashOfKings A Clash of Kings] and [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/AStormOfSwords A Storm of Swords], who is continually forced into situations where she must kill in order to stay alive or to escape bad situations. In A Dance With Dragons, Arya is given her first job as an assassin. *Arranged Marriage: Is obliged to wed Elmar Frey, due to Robb's negotiations with the Late Lord Walder. Due to her own circumstances, she never actually finds out about this. The result is a humorous scene late in [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/AClashOfKings A Clash of Kings] where she runs into her own former fiancé, while he is moping over the rift between Starks and Freys and the loss of his "princess."Arya: My brothers might be dead. Elmar: No one cares about a serving girl's brothers. Arya: I hope your princess dies! *Attempted Rape: Multiple characters along Arya's journey threaten her with rape, including a woman. *Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: With Sansa. Arya admits to herself at one point in the story that she wouldn't mind playing the "princess" and dressing to fit the part if it meant that she would be with Sansa again. *Becoming the Mask: During Arya's journey she takes on different names and roles in order to survive. While she never loses who she is, Arya sometimes gets so deep into her new roles that she refers to them as different and independent entities. The Faceless Men try to bring this about deliberately as part of their training, in which their assassins think of themselves as "no one" and take on the personality (and face) of the person they're impersonating. Sure enough Arya starts to think of herself as Cat of the Canals, a Street Urchin in Braavos, but her 'wolf-dreams' (see Bond Creatures), her refusal to give up Needle, and her execution of a Night's Watch deserter show that her original identity is still resisting. **The resisting of her original identity can be also seen in that the names she used so far in Braavos all have a connection to Arya's past — Cat was her mother's nickname, Beth the name of Ser Rodrik Cassel's daughter and Mercy is a connection to Sandor Clegane and the "gift of mercy". *Big Brother Worship: To Jon and, to a lesser extent, Robb. *Black Sheep: Although she is loved by her father, mother and brothers, she feels like this about her place in the Stark family and among the ladies at Winterfell due to her rebellious nature and desire to pursue unladylike pursuits. Her other siblings are comfortable in their roles or find an outlet for their skills — Robb is set to become the future Lord as Winterfell, Sansa fulfills the expectations of a Proper Lady and wife, Bran wants to be a knight, Rickon is the baby of the family, and her half-brother Jon (who, albeit, also feels like somewhat of an outsider due to his illegitimacy) is closely mentored by their father alongside Robb. However, Arya is unable to find an outlet for her talents and fails to be a proper lady like her mother and older sister. Sansa and her friend Jeyne bully her, she struggles with ladylike skills (embroidery, music, managing her appearance) and her genuine talents are overlooked or inappropriate for her position and gender (riding, sword fighting, maths, and befriending the smallfolk). Of all her siblings, she is closest with her brother Jon, who she identifies closely with — partly because they are both the only Stark children in the current generation to inherit Stark look and partly because, though they are both loved by their family, do not feel like they fully fit in. Her father had hunted boar in the wolfswood with Robb and Jon. Once he even took Bran, but never Arya, even though she was older. Septa Mordane said boar hunting was not for ladies, and Mother only promised that when she was older she might have her own hawk. She was older now, but if she had a hawk she’d eat it. *Bond Creatures: Like all the Starks, she has a potential to be a warg. It's theorized that the reason she's not doing well with her Faceless Man training is because part of her is still running around Westeros, in the form of Nymeria. In the fifth book, while blind, she begins to skinchange into cats during her dreams and a twice while she is awake. In short, she's heading towards being a full-blown twoskin skinchanger with a bit more practice to learn control and the opportunity to settle on a specific feline to work with. Of her siblings, only Bran shows this flexibility in skill, and although, he trumps her in how flexible, he has had training while Arya hasn't. *Bratty Half-Pint: Arya is a petite child with only a little training in combat, so she is easily physically outmatched by those around her. Being highborn, she is outspoken and thus has to force herself to stay quiet and calm during dangerous moments. *Break the Cutie: Arya's Plucky Girl nature tends to obscure the fact that she's living with a massive amount of trauma, grief and anger (enough to frighten an old wood-witch she encounters in A Storm of Swords) that's only shown through her desire to murder the people who have gotten away with various crimes. *Broken Bird: Poor Arya's gone from spirited tomboy to a damaged child who has learned to kill as a means of survival and has only been able to find a safe place to live among assassins. *Cassandra Truth: Happens twice in A Clash of Kings. **When traveling northward with Yoren and the Night's Watch recruits, Arya alone doesn't want to spend the night in an abandoned village because she rightly guesses that the villagers fled for a reason. Everyone dismisses her as craven, then Lannister's knights come to raid the village and attack and kill most of their party, including Yoren. **While recouping with other surviving recruits, Arya insists on scoping out a village alone because she's quieter than the others and less likely to get caught if there are more brutal knights there. Gendry "the Bull" insists on following her, and sure enough, he gets caught. Hot Pie then insists on accompanying Arya to rescue Gendry, and then he's promptly caught and gives Arya's position away, leaving them all at the mercy of Gregor's men. *Character Tic: Chewing on her lip (like her mom on her youth). The Faceless Men train her out of it since it's an idiosyncrasy of Arya Stark. *Chekhov's Classroom: She constantly refers back to Syrio's lessons throughout her ordeals, though they only sometimes help her. *Chekhov's Gun: The iron coin which Jaqen H'ghar gives her, which isn't just a keepsake. It secures her passage to Braavos. *Chekhov's Skill: The first thing Jon teaches her about sword fighting is: "Stick them with the pointy end." When it finally comes down to defending her life, she panics so much that that's the only thing she manages to remember, but it works. *Chronic Hero Syndrome: Her impulsive nature and fierce sense of justice means she's quick to defend the more vulnerable and champion the smallfolk. Given this is Westeros, her efforts don't always turn out well (such as when she attacks Joffrey to protect her friend Mycah) but there are occasions when they pay off, in particular when she gets Jaqen's help for saving his life. *Children Forced to Kill: Getting away from King's Landing leaves her stranded in a war-torn land where people look to take advantage of her or kill her. After she gets captured by Gregor Clegane's men she begins developing a nonchalant attitude toward killing. She later enters the assassin's guild known as the "Faceless Men". *Color Motif: Grey. Grey is the color of her eyes, grey is the city she found some peace in, grey is what she describes herself. Grey is also of House Stark's main colors. *Daddy's Girl: She had a very close bond with Ned. Possibly due to her Strong Family Resemblance and general shared traits with his late sister. *Dance Battler: Arya's water dancing. *Dead Guy Junior: She is named after her father's grandmother Arya Flint. *Deconstructed Character Archetype **Action Girl: She received a few months of water dancer training with the former First Sword of Braavos and uses those skills throughout her journey. However, she can only reliably beat other children with it and has to rely on manipulation and subtlety when facing adults. **Kid Hero: Arya is a more subtle deconstruction of the kid hero, as she is one of the child protagonists of the series, has a high sense of justice, she takes on opponents larger and more skilled than herself, and has been able to repeatedly outsmart adults. However, the villains she wants to kill believe she is dead and are unaware of her true identity. **Spirited Young Lady: Even before ending up on the run, Arya struggled against the restrictions placed on her by her culture. *Deliberately Cute Child: Has more than one kill under her belt using this approach. *Don't Call Me "Sir": **Despite being the daughter of a high lord, she dislikes being called "milady" or "my lady." **Due to her garb and unkempt appearance, she is initially confused with a boy and has to point out that she isn't; later, she has to get used to it by force. *Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: The kindly man refers to her "sad gray eyes that have seen so much". *Evil Mentor: You know your life's in the gutter when your only two mentors of recent memory are Sandor Clegane and a face-shifting assassin. *Fille Fatale: Seduces Raff The Sweetling, gets him in her room and then kills him the same way he killed Lommy in TWOW *Flower Motifs: Arya is fond of flowers; she collects them for her father and later counts them on their way to King's Landing. *Foil: **According to Word of God, her sister Sansa was created as her foil. Despite being as different as night and day, their quests becoming increasingly parallel as fallen princesses who shed their initial idealism and sense of identity in order to survive. **Like Daenerys Targaryen, Arya Stark is a highborn fallen on hard times who has lost much of her family and has spent much time living in squalor in a foreign land. Their quests also involve the supernatural and the pursuit of justice. Unlike Daenerys though, Arya doesn't blindly judge people; she understands that being part of a group doesn't make someone like the rest. Daenerys orders the crucifixion of 163 slavers, not wanting to think there might be good people among them, because being a slaver makes someone evil by default. Arya chooses not to include the Freys on her list because she doesn't know the names of the ones involved. **Varys. From great information-gathering abilities to mummering Arya is becoming more like him every page, yet the two have never had an interaction together. In a way, this mirrors Sansa and Littlefinger's lessons, except Littlefinger is feeding Sansa with his teachings, Arya's teacher has been life. ***Speaking of Varys, his monologue about the ideal leader Westeros needs could be read with Arya in mind and fits perfectly. Trained in arms, reads and writes, speaks several tongues note '' has studied history ''note '' and law ''note '' and poetry ''note ''. She has lived with fisherfolk, worked with her hands, swum in rivers (like a fish according to Jon) and mended nets and learned to wash her own clothes at need. She can fish and cook and bind up a wound, she knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid. She understands kingship is a duty, that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them ''note ''Varys, however, wasn't talking about Arya, but about Aegon VI. **Margaery Tyrell. Cersei sends informers to spy on Margaery to get any dirt on her. What she found out was a woman who enjoyed horse-rising, hawking, talking to and befriending smallfolk, not caring about getting dirty to fit in with them, collecting things she found in nature, a sea-lover and an all-around fun person. That's exactly like Arya as Sansa described her, which makes it all the more ironic since she wanted a sister like Maragery. Margaery is what Arya could have become if her tragedy never happened to her, but also shows Sansa is a very inconsistent judge of character, because the things she disliked in Arya she adored in Margaery. Margaery is also what Arya could have become had her interests and willpower been accepted and made the most of, rather than being told she was inferior to her older sister's type of proper lady. **She is a foil to Myrcella Baratheon. Myrcella is every bit the child princess Arya refused to be with none of the abuse that Sansa saw. Myrcella for the most part was able to see herself safe precisely by abiding to her betrothed. Arya herself was betrothed to a Frey boy that she actually met, but none of them knew each other when it happened. When it came to the time, however, Myrcella was unable to avoid becoming a political pawn and got maimed for it, while Arya was able to escape being a political pawn through a great deal of suffering. *Free-Range Children: Deconstructed. Arya's chapters are full of graphic depictions of the hardships of being homeless in an epic fantasy world. *Generation Xerox: Her similarity to her aunt Lyanna in both appearance and temperament is frequently noted. A scene Bran witnesses from the past even shows Lyanna calling Benjen "stupid" when they were children, which Arya frequently calls people. *The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Arya and Sansa have a strained relationship due to their vastly different personalities and the way adults pit them against each other. This leads to Sansa bullying Arya with her friends and Arya spurning Sansa's company in favor of others. *Gray Eyes: Along with Jon, she is the only one of Ned's children to inherit them, which is fitting since she grows much colder and more anti-heroic than the rest of her siblings. *Guile Hero: Arya relies on her intelligence and cunning to survive after being forced into hiding among the common folk. It especially becomes handy after she joins up with the Faceless Men. *Hates Baths: While staying at a noblewoman's castle Arya is forced to bathe and wear a dress. Gendry sees her and bursts out laughing, so Arya picks a fight with him to get back to her usual messy self. *Heroic B.S.O.D.: After the Red Wedding, she goes into a catatonic state, even passing up the chance to murder Sandor in his sleep, which she had been trying to do repeatedly beforehand. *Horrible Judge of Character: Miraculously averted despite it being her family's Fatal Flaw early on and all her older family members — sans Jon — falling prey to it. While Ned, Catelyn, Robb and Sansa's faith in the wrong people has catastrophic consequences for them ''note '' Arya's survived on her instincts alone for most of the series. She dislikes the Lannisters from the get-go and very savvy while on the run in a brutally wartorn Westeros. The few people she does choose to trust, such as Gendry, usually turn out to be good calls. *Hot-Blooded: Her father says she has "the wolf blood", like her aunt Lyanna. *How Dare You Die on Me!: She is both sad and angry at Yoren for dying because he had promised to take her home to Winterfell. She has a similar reaction in ''A Game of Thrones during the purge of the Stark household when she finds the dead body of the household guard Desmond, who promised her that every Northman was worth ten Southron swords, yet he and several others died while only taking one Lannister guard down with them. *Hyper Awareness: She is very observant at the start of the series, but her training focuses on heightening that ability. She is the only character to figure out there was something off about Roose Bolton, a mistake that cost her mother, and her brother their lives. **She is able to see there are good among bad too, such as she understood Shitmouth was not a cruel man, albeit him being part of the Moutain's Men, the a gang known for raping, pillaging, burning. **Much earlier, she managed to not fall for a Lannister trap, when a ship supposedly to take her home was surrounded by Lannister men in Stark clothes. She just changed her way noticing this. **In Harrenhal she was able to pick up what everyone was doing, at what place, and at what time. *Hypocritical Humor: When the kindly man tells her she's too proud for the Loss of Identity required by a Faceless Man, Arya says she can be more humble than anyone. *I Call It "Vera": Needle, Jon's gift to her. *I Have Many Names: She takes on number of identities to survive: Arry, an orphan boy; Weasel, servant at Harrenhal; Nymeria/Nan, cupbearer to Roose Bolton; Salty, when aboard the Titan's Daughter on her way to Braavos; Cat of the Canals, an orphan from King's Landing whose father was killed by a bravo; Beth, a blind beggar girl. As an acolyte of the Faceless Men, this number can be expected to rise dramatically. *I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Mycah's death is only the first of many deaths Arya would blame on herself. *I'm Not Pretty: She is surprised when people compare her to her beautiful Aunt Lyanna. Justified as she grew up being compared to her more traditionally beautiful older sister as well as consistently being referred to as "Arya Horseface" and the like. It's implied that while Sansa is the "born beautiful" type, Arya herself is more of the "growing into her beauty" type. *Innocence Lost: Arya went from spirited tomboy princess to disillusioned killer in the course of only a couple of years. *In-Series Nickname: Her family's household staff referred to her as Arya Underfoot. Sansa and Jeyne called her Arya Horseface. Sandor Clegane refers to her as she-wolf. *It Gets Easier: The first time she is forced to kill somebody, she's genuinely horrified. After her experience with battle, her time in Harrenhall, and the work of Jaqen H'Ghar, killing comes naturally to her. *It Was a Gift: When the Faceless Men tell Arya she must give up all her possessions, Needle is the one gift she's is unable to throw away, so she hides it instead. *Judge, Jury, and Executioner: When Arya, Cat of the Canals, encounters a deserter from the Night's Watch, she leads him into a dark alley and cuts his throat, following the traditions of her culture's executions of deserters. **Her trainer in the Guild of the Faceless Men is trying to break her of this habit, telling her that their order is made up solely of executioners, and their god is judge and jury. *Junior Counterpart: To her late aunt Lyanna; Ned notes they share everything from appearance to personality and interests. *Lady Looks Like a Dude: She was often mistaken for being a boy. She uses this to her advantage after the second book when she travels among the commoners. *Left-Handed Mirror: The trait emphasizes how different she is from her sister. *Little Miss Badass: Deconstructed. Though a child, Arya has been able to survive in horrific conditions and even defend herself against enemies on occasion. *Lonely Together: In the Riverlands, she considers proposing Gendry to become a family together; it never becomes more than a thought. *Loss of Identity: This is part of what she needs to accomplish to become a Faceless Man assassin. Though she continues to insist that she is no one, her refusal to give up Needle, a symbol of her connect with her family, and her ever growing ability to warg, prove that her identity is still intact. *Madden Into Misanthropy: Arya has gradually become more misanthropic with the course of the story, as she has found that every person that she seems to place her trust into meets either a tragic fate or finds his/herself led astray, making these people unable to keep their promises with Arya. Slowly, Arya is shown to be eroding from all her preconceived notions about the people she meets and the value of their lives. *Madness Mantra: Her mantra doesn't necessarily show insanity, but her constant repetition in her head of people she wants dead is rather unnerving for a girl who, once again, hasn't hit puberty yet. **Likewise her repeating the Tickler's interrogation questions while stabbing him over and over again. *'Arya:' Is there gold hidden in the village? Is there silver, gems? Is there food? Where is Lord Beric? Where did he go? How many men were with him? How many knights, how many bowmen? How many, how many, how many, how many, how many, how many? IS THERE GOLD IN THE VILLAGE? *Magnetic Hero: Despite being the outcast among the few young girls in Winterfell for not fitting in, Arya is depicted as a popular character who develops friendships easily and with a variety of different sorts of people regardless of social status. This continues even as she takes on other identities with the Faceless Men.Sansa's narration: Sansa knew all about the sorts of people Arya liked to talk to: squires and grooms and serving girls, old men and naked children, rough-spoken freeriders of uncertain birth. Arya would make friends with anybody. *Middle Child Syndrome: Between older siblings Robb and Sansa, who easily fit into the gender norms of future Lord of Winterfell and highborn lady respectively, and youngest children Bran and Rickon, tomboyish Arya always felt out of place. This is only helped by the fact that she's the only one with the classic Stark look, which is part of why she is closest to fellow misfit Jon Snow. It's suggested that this trope is the reason she acts out sometimes, especially in the first book. *Morality Pet: Sandor Clegane shows a softer side with her as well as with her sister Sansa. Though he's not very nice to Arya (who also hates him), he keeps her from harm and even teaches her "the gift of mercy". *Motifs: The water motif (representing change and adaptation, which Arya does a lot) is the most prominent element in her chapters. She loves it too. To a lesser extent, soil. *Naïve Newcomer: While she was never as naive or overly-trusting as Sansa, Arya was completely unaware of how cruel and cold the world could really be. She didn't understand the consequences of striking a prince (even in defense of an innocent person) or acting out in public. There are hints that she believed some of the things in songs as well (again, though not to the same extent as Sansa); for example, she initially believed in the Knight in Shining Armor ideal too and thought if she could reveal herself to Lady Whent, Lady Whent would take care of her (as oppose to assuming she was just a lying commoner). *Nice to the Waiter: Something her father taught her, which makes the deaths of their servants and guards hard on her. *Nothing Personal: Like her mother, Arya averts this so hard that it's her main obstacle as a novice of the Faceless Men. She takes justice very personally, but they aren't judges; they're tools who aren't allowed to take contracts on people they know and don't care whether the victims are good or evil. *Not So Different: **Arya and Sansa are considered as different as day and night by their father but they suffer similar ordeals. They both have had to assess friends and enemies in order to survive, have made mistakes in trusting formerly honorable knights, and are being manipulated into being pawns to be controlled by men with great authority. **She has some traits actually more reminiscent of Catelyn than Ned's. Other than have the same Character Tic, mother and daughter are shown to be both more emotional and violent in their thoughts and actions than, for example, Sansa or Ned. They are both more practical and cynical about the people who surround them, which Ned and Sansa (at first) are not. Both Arya and Catelyn are strongly concerned with justice, but said justice often converges in desire of vengeance. Catelyn's new identity as Lady Stoneheart takes this Up to Eleven, as she has executed anyone she believes was involved with the Red Wedding, not unlike her daughter's revenge list of people who hurt her and her family, and they are both very unlike to forgive them, no matter what their reasons are. *One of the Boys: Engaged in horseback riding and swordplay with her brothers, and was closest to Jon, much to her septa's dismay. *Our Werewolves Are Different: Arya can warg into her direwolf, Nymeria, taking over her body and joining her thoughts. *Passionate Sports Girl: She practices swordplay and is excellent at horseback riding. *Pay Evil unto Evil: Like her father, Jon and (strangely enough) her mother, Arya has a very strong sense of right and wrong which she takes very''personally. But, that doesn't mean she won't do wrong to pay wrong: oh, she will. If she can get away with it. The Faceless Men are trying to get her to shake this habit. With less-than-fantastic success. This is one Northern tradition she upholds to the hilt. *Plucky Girl: She is brave and persistent in achieving her goals which include becoming water dancer, reuniting with Jon, and killing those who have harmed her family and friends. *Princess in Rags: After she leaves the Red Keep, she's a ragged child whose most valuable possession is Needle and is forced to steal to survive. *Professional Killer: In training to become a member of the assassins' guild known as the Faceless Men, and first assassinates someone at the end of the fifth book. *Replacement Goldfish: It's implied that the reason Ned indulged in her Tomboyish traits (see the appointment of a private fencing tutor), it's because he wants to see her little sister Lyanna again through Arya, without reliving the memories from Robert's Rebellion. But, as described above, Ned expects her to grow out of this rebellious phase, so it's a bit downplayed *The Resenter: Downplayed; in the first book she resents Sansa for being so effortlessly good at most of the skills required by their culture while Arya, despite all her efforts, can't catch up. In addition, while she is indulged by her parents, Arya's behavior is not as celebrated as Sansa's is by anyone. Even Ned tells Arya that those tendencies are what brought ruin to his siblings. *She-Fu: Eddard sees her Tomboyish ways and decides she should be trained in the more "elegant" Braavosi fencing style. *Shipper on Deck: For her parents. To the point that she outright rejects Edric Dayne's suggestion that Ned fell in love with Ashara Dayne at Harrenhal and then tries to run away from the Brotherhood because of it. *Ship Tease: Of the Puppy Love variety with Gendry. They grow very close while traveling together and there are hints of more romantic feelings as time goes on, particularly during their stay at Acorn Hall. *Silk Hiding Steel: While taking on other roles, Arya learns to utilize this trope, pretending to be meek and weaponizing her femininity to gain the advantage with her enemies. For instance, in ''The Winds of Winter, she takes on the role of The Ingenue with Raff The Sweetling, pretending she has been offered by her employer for his sexual use and then pulls a Chastity Dagger from her sleeve when found alone in a room with him, with no witnesses. *Sibling Yin-Yang: The complete opposite of Sansa in almost every conceivable way. *Snooping Little Kid: Arya overhears some important conversations through her travels (though she often fails to understand their significance), and starts snooping in earnest as part of her training with the Faceless Men. *Spoiled Brat: Similarly to the rest of the Stark kids, Ned indulged her quite a bit by Westerosi standards, never punishing her for disobeying and giving her sword lessons, and she often antagonizes her older sister, though is generally a kind girl. Part of Arya's arc is the Deconstruction of her being a Rebellious Princess, where she realizes how much better she had it as a noblewoman than a commoner on the run. *Street Smart: Arya's resourcefulness and quick thinking allow her to survive alone in the slums of King's Landing for a time, and she later hones that ability even more during her training in Braavos. *Street Urchin: Again, during her time in King's Landing, she sleeps in the streets and survives by catching pigeons. *Strong Family Resemblance: To her aunt Lyanna, inheriting her Unkempt Beauty looks, Hot-Blooded temperament, love of horses, and skill with swords. *Survival Mantra: Fear cuts deeper than swords. Fear cuts deeper than swords. Fear cuts deeper than swords. *Sweet Polly Oliver: She disguised herself as a boy more than once to keep her true identity hidden. Even after giving up the disguise, she is still often mistaken for a boy because of her short hair, male clothing, and un-girlish bearing. *Tantrum Throwing: Plenty of this due to her Hot-Blooded nature, but it takes on a disturbing edge after all the atrocities she witnesses. After the Red Wedding when a child her age shows Arya her soldier doll, she responds by ripping its stuffing out and throwing it in the river so it will ''really''look like a soldier. *Temporary Blindness: Part of her Training from Hell with the Faceless Men is this; she's blinded for a while so her other skills can strengthen without the aid of sight. Afterwards, it's temporary deafness, and so on. *Tomboy: Arya isn't one for needlework or pretty dresses, instead preferring swordplay and horseback riding. *Tomboy and Girly Girl: While Sansa prefers to think of the world as a song where she is the beautiful princess destined to marry the king, Arya is a quick-thinking tomboy that would rather be learning swordplay and riding horses. *Tomboy Princess: Her lack of skill in and aversion toward anything ladylike give Septa Mordane and her sister endless pain, but her father doesn't seem to mind his daughter's tomboy-ish attitude, likely because it reminds him of his sister. *Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Arya loves flowers, wears her heart on her sleeve for much of the series, and resents that Sansa gets to sit with the "tall, handsome" prince while Arya gets stuck sitting with his chubby little brother, and is developing Silk Hiding Steel skills. *Training from Hell: Her instructors at the House of Black and White are benevolent enough, but the training itself is extreme. It involves being temporarily blinded to learn to manage and fight without seeing. Next in line is being made deaf, and then being crippled. *True Companions: Despite their class difference, she becomes this with Gendry and Hot Pie, taking them into her "pack" and admits they're the only friends she has, even considering offering to be his family. *Unusual Euphemism: "Dancing" and "needlework" for her less-than-ladylike sword training. *Waif-Fu: Played realistically. Her father arranges for Arya to be trained in the water-dancing style well suited to her small frame and slim blade, but she still lacks the size and strength to take on adult male soldiers. Her most effective kills involve using cunning and deception to take her target unawares. *Wild Card: As of the second book onward, particularly after Yoren is killed, and with him dies her plan to reach Winterfell. *Wild Child: Arya is known for her wild spirit which Ned refers to as "wolf blood." *Wise Beyond Their Years: An increasingly dark example, given the hell she witnesses but she demonstrates this as early as the first book. After the Trident incident when Cersei and Joffrey have Lady and Mycah killed, Arya — all of nine years old — is the only one present who realizes how Obviously Evil the pair are and is wary of them (the fact she cares about the smallfolk and takes the death of a mere butcher's boy so seriously, while other nobles dismiss it, helps). *You Remind Me of X: Several characters note the resemblance between her and Lyanna, specifically her skill in horse-riding, her interest in swordplay, her fiery temper and her increasing beauty. *You Should Have Died Instead: Sansa tells Arya that she wishes Arya had died instead of Lady. *